Past, Present, & Future
by k.chewchew1987
Summary: Edited Version. Tsuna and his friends met a mysterious girl who seem to know everything about them. New friends to fight alongside Tsuna and new foes once again targeting Vongola Rings.
1. Prologue

**PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE**

Prologue

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_Deep inside the forest, a huge mansion was built upon a small hill surrounded with tall pine trees and a great wall. Every corner of the walls was guarded by several armed men in black suit, watching every movement around the mansion. After all, the people living within the guarded mansion were people of importance. _

_Through the tall glass of the mansion on the second floor, it was visibly that a party was going on inside the mansion because laughers and music could be heard even from the outside. Today was a special for the people living within the mansion because…_

"_Happy birthday to you, little princess." The chestnut color haired man said while carrying a little girl with curly blond hair within his arms. Many people, both adults and children were surrounding the man and the little girl while the birthday song was played throughout the ballroom. _

"_So the little princess is already three years old?" someone spoke from behind the little girl. _

_The little girl giggled when one of her uncles took her from her father's arms and tickled her side. Then she pouted cutely when her other uncle used his hand to mess up her hair, but a bright smile filled her face when she felt a little weight upon her head. _

"_A princess tiara!" the little girl squealed and hugged the uncle who gave her the tiara. She had always wanted a princess tiara because everyone around her called her princess, and a princess must wear a tiara. After she let go of her uncle, she took hold of her father's hand when a waltz was played._

"_Dance with me, papa?" the little girl asked and smiled brightly when her father nodded his head down at her. Like always, her father would want her to step onto his shoes while they dance. As the music played, the man and the little girl waltzed around the ballroom with everyone looking at them. _

_Suddenly the music stopped. _

"_Papa?" the little girl asked when her father stopped moving. Then she realized everything around her had gone quiet. Looking up at her father's face, the little girl quivered a little when she saw an expression she never seen before appeared on his father's gentle face. _

_Shock? Sad? Happy?Angry? _

"_Papa…?" the little girl asked while still looking at her father. Her father seemed to be staring at something or someone. Following her father's gaze, the little girl turned around and looked at the entrance of the ballroom. Her blue eyes widened when she saw a boy in ragged clothes standing in the middle of the entrance. Even from a far, the little could see the boy was shivering. She wondered who he was. _

"…_Yuki…?" her father whispered chokingly. _

_In a flash of moment, the little girl watched as her father and some of her uncles ran towards the boy. When her father reached the boy, he knelt on one knee before the boy and placed held the boy's face within his hand. _

"_Yuki, why are you here? What happened?" her father asked the boy while examining the boy's body to see if he was injured. The little girl watched as her other uncles also started to ask the boy's some questions and the boy seemed to be answering back to them, but in very soft voice that the little girl was unable to hear. _

_The little girl wanted to hear what they were talking about and she started to run forward but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She turned to look behind her and was surprised to see it was one of her uncles. The expression on her uncle face seemed to tell her not to interfere. _

"…_Who is he? Papa seems to know who he is." The little girl said whiles her blue eyes still staring at the group of people. Her eyes widened when she watched her father pulled the boy into his arms and hugged him. Her uncles surrounding them seemed to be smiling but one of them was crying. _

"…_His name is Yoshiyuki. He is…" her uncle told her in a low voice while he too stared at the group of people surrounding the boy. Looking clearly, the boy had chestnut colored hair like his father and even from afar, the little girl could see the boy looked a lot like her father. _

"… _your brother." _

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_Three years had passed since her brother Yoshiyuki came to live with her and her father. Over the past three years, she had gotten much attached to her brother and would always follow him wherever he goes. Her brother also welcome her present and would always bought her gifts from outside if he went out with her father or uncles without her. _

_Clutching the bunny doll, one of her favorite present her brother bought for her, the little girl ran along the long corridor, not forgetting to greet the maids and butlers on her way, until she reached the outside of her brother's chamber. _

_Pulling down the door handle, the little girl pushed open the door and stepped into the chamber with a huge smile on her face._

"_Onii-chan…papa is calling…" the little called out but her voice trailed off when she saw the chamber was covered in total darkness. She wondered why her brother did not switch on the lights. Walking deeper into the chamber, the little girl called out for her brother again. _

"…_Onii-chan…?" _

_CRASH!_

_The little girl jumped when she heard something heavy fell onto the floor and broke. She wince when something flew pass her and grazed her right cheek. Lifting her hand to touch the spot where something seemed to hit her, she froze when her hand felt something liquid flowing down her cheek; blood. _

_Fears entered her heart and tears began to fill her blue eyes. The wound suddenly felt very painful and she sobbed. Suddenly, a hand reached out and roughly covered her mouth. Dropping her bunny onto the floor, the little girl began to struggle hard against the stranger. She tried to scream but her voice was muffled by the hand covered her mouth. Tears began rolling down her cheeks as her fear increased._

"…_Is she the one?" the stranger asked softly, as if another person was also inside the chamber. _

"…_Not sure…but if we inject this into her…maybe…" a voice said from a shadow near them and the little girl cried harder. _

_The little girl watched as the shadow slowly approached her and unwilling to see what would happen anymore, the little girl closed her eyes. She knew her father and brother would come to save her because they always said they would protect her. _

"_DO NOT TOUCH HER!" _

_The little girl opened her blue eyes when she heard her brother's voice. Her eyes darted around to see where her brother was and she gasped against the stranger's hand when she saw her brother lying on the floor on his stomach, covered in cuts and blood. She struggled again, wanting to go to her brother but the stranger only tightened his hold on her. _

"…_You are no match against us, boy." The voice said and the little girl watched her brother glared up at the shadow. _

"_Let her go. She is just a child." Her brother begged and tried to stand up. The little girl could see her brother was shaking in pain and it took him lots of energy just to stand up. The little girl shook her head, telling her brother in silence not to do anything rash. She did not want him to get hurt further._

"…_True, but we cannot hand her back to you. We need her…more like her body." The voice said and the little girl saw the shadow approached her again. _

"_Use mine." Her brother said. The little girl saw the shadow stopped moving and the hand against her mouth also seemed to loosen a bit. _

"…_You want to take her place?" the voice asked and it seemed surprised. _

"…_I am his heir, surely I am more powerful than a mere five years old girl." Her brother said and the little watched as her brother sat down onto the floor, breathing hard and his face seemed pale. _

"…_True…hmm…what should I do?" the shadow said to himself and the little girl started crying again. Although she did not know what they were talking about but she knew her brother was going to do something dangerous. _

"_Ok then. I'll accept your offer." The shadow said and approached her brother. _

_The little girl began struggle hard again. This time, she bit into the hand of the stranger holding her until she tasted blood within her mouth. When the stranger yelped and pushed her away, the little girl opened her mouth and screamed. _

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_A young girl stood in the middle of the training room with a long sword clenched within her right hand. Her long blond hair was tied in a long braid down her back so her hair would not get in the way of her training. Her blue eyes showed no emotion as she stared at the dummy standing before her. _

_SLASH!_

_With a clean swing of the blade, the dummy was cut into half and still the young girl shown no emotion. Her blue eyes darted to the side when she noticed someone was watching her. Standing by the entrance of the training room was none other than her father who was looking at her sadly. _

"…_you don't have to do this." Her father said while walking towards her._

_The young girl shook her head and looked down at the floor. Ten years ago, her brother was kidnapped in her place. She felt that it was her fault. Now that his father had lost his heir and the group lost their successor, it was her fault. _

"_I want to go look for him, papa." The young girl said and she felt her eyes became blurry as she recalled the event ten years ago. When her father reached her side, she startled for awhile when he took her within his arms._

"_We do not want to lose you either." Her father said in a shaky voice and the young girl slowly reached her arms to wrap about her father's trembling body. Over the past ten years, her father had been doing all he could to find her missing brother but still, he could not be found. _

"_I will be fine." The young girl said confidently to assure her father before pushing herself away from his embrace. She smiled gently at her gentle father and took his hand within hers. _

"_Let's go for breakfast, papa. I'm starve." The young girl said and began pulling father out of the training room. She did not want her father and uncles to worry about her and the journey she was about to take. _

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_The young girl ran as fast as she could in the dark forest. She had been too careless while she investigated the abandoned factory which she suspected her brother might be held hostage. Instead of finding her brother, she found some hooded people whom energy felt the same as those people from ten years ago. She suspected these people were their comrades. _

_The moment she faced them, she knew she could not defeat them because not only were them powerful but also their energy gave her some kind of creep. Her intuition warned her off and she escaped. _

"_Look who I found." A voice suddenly sounded out and the young girl stopped in her track and looked around the dark forest, her sword ready by her hand. Her eyes darted around and saw no one. She also could not sense anyone's present. _

_Suddenly a hand reached out and roughly grabbed onto her wrist, causing her to drop the sword onto the ground. She stumbled and fell onto the ground when someone tripped her and she groaned when she felt someone sat on her back. _

"_Haha…it's the princess." The person sitting on her back said and laughed. From the tone of his voice, he sounded like a young kid. _

"_Ne ne, since the princess is already here. Can we run the test on her?" the person on her back asked and the young girl felt as if someone was standing beside her. Although she could not see the person because she was pressed down, she felt a strange energy emitting from the person standing near her. _

"_Let me go! Haven't you done enough? Where is my brother!" the young girl shouted and tried to struggle but the person on her back only pressed harder. _

"_Your brother?" the person standing near her spoke. _

"_Ten years ago, your comrades invade my home and took my brother away! So where is him! Where is my brother!" the young girl cried and winced when the person on her back pulled hard on her hair. _

"_I don't know what you are talking about. We never meet your brother before. In fact, this is the first time we come here." The person on her back said and giggled. _

_The young girl turned her head slightly to glare at the person sitting on her back. She did not believe them. She knew these people were somehow connected to the people from ten years ago because the energy felt the same. _

"_LIAR!" the young girl shouted and in a fast speed, she grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and threw it at the person sitting on her back, causing the person to release her. When she was free, the young girl quickly rolled aside and grabbed the sword lying on the ground nearby. _

_Posing an attack stance, the young girl glared at the two people standing before here. She could not see their face because their head was completely covered and shadowed with a black hood. _

"_I ask again. Where is my brother Yoshiyuki?" the young girl asked fiercely and when the both of them remained silence, she gritted her teeth and lunged forward. She did not want to hurt anyone but it left her no choice._

"…_Do you think you can take us down all by yourself?" the taller hooded person said and in a flash, she was lying on the ground again, this time with her own sword pointing at her throat. The young girl gritted her teeth. She knew there people were powerful but to make her felt so weak, she felt useless; all her training she underwent, did those mean nothing? _

"_We will not kill you. In fact, we need you." The hooded person said and held her down with his feet. The young girl watched as another hooded person, the one sat on her back took something out from his pocket before kneeling down beside her. _

"_What are you doing!" the young girl cried and she watched the person pointed a needle look-alike thing at her chest, directly above her heart. _

"_Hope this will work." _

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"_She is here! She is back!" _

_The young girl walked into her home and was greeted by her father and uncles. All of them were worrying about her because she had strayed from the group and had been missing for hours. _

"_What happen!" her father asked and held both her hands within his. The young girl saw how worried her father was and tears filled her blue eyes. _

"_I'm sorry…" the young girl whispered and buried her face against her father's chest. No longer able to hold back her emotion, she cried. She did not care if her uncles and cousins and friends were staring at her. She did not care. She cried harder when her father wrapped his arms around her shaking body and even harder when he heard her father's sobs. _

_After several hours, the young girl finally calmed down. Her uncles and the others had all returned to their own houses following her father's order. Sitting in her own bed in her own chamber, the young girl stared at the doll bunny her brother bought for her ten years ago. She knew where her brother was. _

_Standing up, she reached for her sword lying beside her bed and strapped it by her waist. Silently, she walked towards her balcony and stared at the moon in the sky. In her encounter with the two hooded people, she realized her brother was in a place where no one could reach unless…_

_Reaching her hand and placed it on her chest above her heart, the young girl's blue eyes flickered for a moment before determination entered her eyes. She knew what she had to do to save her brother; even if it would cost her the life she had at the moment with her family and friends. _

"…_Do not do this." A voice sounded from behind her. Even the young girl did not turn around; she knew the person was her father. She knew she could never hide anything from her father. _

"_I have to go to where onii-chan is." The young girl said and placed her hand on the railing of the balcony. _

"_You won't be coming back." Her father said and the young girl smiled sadly at the moon. Her father's intuition was right. She realized if she followed her brother to that place, it was a possibility that she could never return home ever again. However…_

"_I will return to you, papa. Please trust me." The young girl said and turned around to smile at her beloved father. With that, she jumped down from the balcony and disappeared in mid air. _

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"NO! DON'T GO!"

Sawada Tsunayoshi sat up on his bed with one of his hand reaching out before him as if he was trying to grab something. His amber eyes were widened in fear and unfocused as he stared at the blank space before him.

"…Eh…?" Tsuna whispered to himself as he realized what he was doing. His ambers eyes were no long filled with fear but with confusion. He felt something was flowing down cheeks and when he raised a hand to wipe away the thing, he realized he had been crying in his sleep.

He tried to recall the dream that caused him to cry but frowned when he could not remember anything from the dream at all.

"Tsu-kun, hurry up or you will be late ~" his mother called from below stairs and Tsuna quickly used his sleeves to wipe away the evidence of tears before getting down from his bed. He could never let anyone see him crying over some dreams. After washing himself up and putting on his uniform, Tsuna quickly went downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Tsuna-nii, are you okay? I heard you shouting just now." A boy around the age of nine asked worriedly. The boy was Fuuta Delle Stelle, also known as the prince of ranking due to his ability to rank everything in the world. Since Tsuna rescued him from a group of mafia two years two years ago, he had been living in his house ever since.

"I am fine. Don't worry about it." Tsuna said and sat down on his seat by the table before digging into the breakfast his mother cook for him.

"Tsu-kun, your bento is on the table by the door. Bianchi had been so nice to help me out preparing the bento." Sawada Nana said and placed a glass of juice on the table. He missed the pale look on her son's face when he mentioned Bianchi, the notable assassin widely known for her poison cooking skills. She too had been living with them ever since two years ago when she came into his house to become his art and social tutor.

"…Thanks." Tsuna muttered. Although he felt sorry for Bianchi, but the moment he was out of the door, he would definitely find a place to dump the bento so no one, including innocent animals would find it and eat it. It was for his and everyone's own good.

"…_missing from his home again like other children." _

Tsuna looked up and listened to the news that the television was previewing. It would seem another child had gone missing. Adding this case, there was already total five children missing. He hoped that police would find the children soon.

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"Good morning, Tenth!" a loud voice greeted Tsuna as he stepped into the classroom. He smiled at the person who greeted him; Silver haired Gokudera Hayato, self-claimed to be his right hand man and the holder of Storm attribute Vongola Gear.

"Haha, morning, Tsuna." Another voice greeted from behind Gokudera Hayato and Tsuna smiled at the person too; raven haired Yamamoto Takeshi, a baseball player and also the holder of Rain attribute Vongola Gear.

"Morning, guys." Tsuna greeted back and together, all three of them walked towards their seat before the teacher came into the class. As he put down his bag and sit down on his seat, he turned to his side and greeted the person sitting next to him. "Morning, Enma."

"Morning, Tsuna." Red haired Kozato Enma, Tsuna's best friend and also the tenth boss of Shimon Family greeted back and both of them smiled at each other in a silly way before turning back to look at the teacher.

Tsuna's amber eyes took in the scene in his classroom and smiled. Apparently even after going into senior high school, he could still be together with his friends. Enma, whom Tsuna expected would go back to study in his own hometown, had surprised him by enrolling into the same school as him.

Turning to the other side to look out the window, Tsuna smiled at the cherry blossom petals floating in the air and felt lucky to live in peace again. Although he missed Reborn, his hell of a tutor and the Sun Arcobaleno, he was really glad that Reborn could no longer threaten him to become mafia boss again.

Tsuna's amber eyes widened slightly as he saw a girl in pink sailor uniform stood under the cherry blossom tree. He had never seen such school uniform before, so he thought perhaps she was a new enrolled student from another town. Even from afar, Tsuna could see the color of the girl's long hair; golden. _A foreigner…_

"Sawada Tsunayoshi! Pay attention!"

The teacher's voice bought Tsuna's attention back to the teacher and he smiled sheepishly at his teacher before apologizing. When the teacher turned his back to face the blackboard again, Tsuna turned his head to the window to look at the girl again, but the girl was no longer there.

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"Is there a foreign student in our school?" Tsuna asked while holding a sandwich in his hand. He had managed to throw away Bianchi's bento and bought himself some lunch from the canteen.

"Never seen one before in the school. Why?" Kozato Enma answered while he too was eating a sandwich. Enma had been living by himself at the local inn while everyone else in the Shimon family had gone back to their hometown. According to Reborn before he left, Vongola ninth had been secretly supporting Shimon in term of financial and everything else in order to redeem their sins for the past four hundred years, even for a little bit.

"Tenth, are you looking for that person? I can help you look that person up." Gokudera asked and took out a note from his pocket, ready to write down everything Tsuna was to tell him.

"Ahh…no…no need, thanks. It was nothing actually." Tsuna said and laughed sheepishly. He did not know why, but his mind kept going back to the girl he saw earlier. He knew he had never seen her before but a feeling kept nagging on him, as if he had forgotten something really important. "Just asking."

He watched as his friends were satisfied with his answer and they went back to eating their lunch. Suddenly a gust of strong wind breezed passed them, carrying within the wind was the cherry blossom petals. Tsuna closed his eyes and brought his hand up to shield his face from the petals.

After a moment when the wind stopped, Tsuna slowly opened his eyes and was shocked to come face to face with the girl he saw earlier. She was standing before him with a sword strapped by her waist, and she was looking intensely at him.

"TENTH!"

"TSUNA!"

A pair of sky blue eyes and long golden hair down her back, but Tsuna knew the girl was Japanese because of her features, in fact, she looked so familiar but Tsuna could not remember where he had seen her before. Also, even though she was armed, Tsuna did not feel a bit fear towards her at all.

"…Yes?" Tsuna asked the girl, feeling as if she had something to ask him. However his amber eyes widened when the girl's blue eyes started to close and her body started to lean forward towards him. "Hey!"

Tsuna caught the girl who fainted in his arms and the both of them fell onto the floor with a thud. Gokudera, Yamamoto and Enma quickly ran forwards to inspect the situation.

"Tenth! You all right?" Gokudera Hayato asked as he knelt down beside Tsuna and when he reached a hand out trying to pull the girl away, he immediately pulled back his hand when he felt hot wave emitted from the girl. "Tenth, she is…!"

"I am fine, Gokudera." Tsuna assured the silver haired guardian and gently turned the girl in his arms around. Indeed she was emitting a wave of hot energy but strangely he did not feel any burn at all. In fact, he felt the energy was familiar…as if…

"She is the sky flame user like you, Tsuna." Enma blurted out as he too felt the energy emitted from the girl. He had first hand experienced Tsuna's flames and the wave length was the same as the energy the girl was emitting.

"Is she all right then?" Yamamoto Takeshi asked while he too knelt beside Tsuna to look at the girl. He secretly let go of his Vongola Rain necklace he hid inside his pocket after he was sure the girl was no threat to them. "You want me to carry her to the infirmary?"

"Yea, that will do. Thanks, Yamamoto." Tsuna said and passed the girl to Yamamoto who carried the girl up into his arms and exited the roof. Getting up, Tsuna dusted off the petals and dirt from his shirt and saw something metallic dropped onto the floor beside him; a silver locket. When he turned the locket around, his amber eyes widened in shock for behind the locket, a familiar crest was crafted onto the locket; the crest of a family Tsuna knew very well.

The Vongola Family Crest.

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A/N: Hey guys, this is the edited version of Past Present of Future I posted earlier. Should be less messy compare to the last one? Anyway, please review and let me know what you think. Thanks.

No pairings V ( * _ * ) V


	2. Chapter 1

**PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE**

Chapter 1: The Attack

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_She ran and ran. She did not know how long she had been running but she knew she had to keep running or else she would lose her way. Her hand reached out, trying to reach the brightness far ahead of her. She knew the brightness was her only hope to guide her to where she wanted to go so she had to reach there no matter what. _

"_Please…" she whispered. She ignored the tears running down her cheeks and kept running towards the light. The light seemed to be getting close and closer to her and once again she reached out her hand. _

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"Let me be there…"

Tsuna listened to the unconscious girl lying on the infirmary bed talked in her sleep. She seemed to be chasing after something or someone but he knew she was sad because she had been crying all the time, even in her sleep. Tsuna had never deal with such thing before so he did not know what he should do. Sighing in defeat, he turned to Dr Shamal, his school temporarily doctor, and also Vongola's private doctor who hated males.

"Is she hurt?" Tsuna asked and watched as Dr Shamal read some kind of report he held in his hand. When Yamamoto brought the girl to the infirmary, Dr Shamal seemed to not know the girl, weird to be so because she was supposed to be related to Vongola because of the crest on the locket. As for the locket, Tsuna decided not to show to anyone before the girl awakened.

Dr Shamal scanned at the report he got from the girl lying on the bed. Based on the analysis, the girl indeed had the sky flame but according to his information, there were only a few sky flame users and the girl's information was not among it. In fact, looking at the girl's uniform, Dr Shamal had never seen such uniform anywhere before. As for the reason she fainted…

"She is exhausted. She will be fine once she has her rest." Dr Shamal said and placed the report back into his desk drawer; he wanted to get more information from the girl in case she was a threat to Vongola. "You can go back to your class now."

"Erm…I think I'll stay…" Tsuna said and sat down on the chair beside the bed. Indeed he was worried about the girl but he was more worried that Dr Shamal would harass the girl. After all, he loved all females. "I think she is looking for me at that time…"

"Tsk. You ruined my fun." Dr Shamal said and turned back to his paperwork on the desk.

Tsuna laughed sheepishly and hoped that Dr Shamal would not release his mosquitoes on him for ruining his so-called fun. Gokudera, Yamamoto and Enma had returned to their classroom because he told them so. At first they wanted to stay in the infirmary with him but he said he did not want the teacher and the other students in their class to be suspicious. After all, the girl did not belong to their school.

Making sure that Dr Shamal was not looking; Tsuna took out the silver locket from his pocket and examined it again. He fingered the Vongola crest at the back of the locket and he was very sure the crest was real. To have someone bearing the Vongola crest, this person must be very important to the family. However, the strange part was why Dr Shamal, being having worked for Vongola for a long time did not know who she was.

Turning the locket over and over again, Tsuna found there was a crack in between; meaning the locket could be opened. Gently, he tried to open the locket but a pale hand shot out and stopped him.

"HIEEE -!" Tsuna shrieked in surprise and watched the girl snatched the locket from his hand. His shriek seemed to have alerted Dr Shamal for he was walking towards them.

"I'm sorry! I don't mean to pry…" Tsuna stood up and apologized eagerly. He felt he had done something wrong for he tried to invade other people's privacy. He watched as the girl cradle the locket as if it was something really important to her and he felt even guilty. "I'm sorry."

"…No…it's fine." The girl said softly and placed the locket around her neck. She cradled the locket within her palm as if she was praying for a while before she hid the locket inside her clothe.

"The sleeping beauty has awakened." Dr Shamal said and opened his arms to try to hug the girl but he pouted when the girl ducked, jumped out from the bed, and used Tsuna as her shield against him.

"I did nurse you back so a little reward will not hurt, right?" Dr Shamal said and smiled slyly.

Tsuna shrieked when Dr Shamal came after the two of them and without thinking, Tsuna took hold of the girl's hand and pulled her along as he ran out of the infirmary. He passed by several on lookers and ignored the looks they were giving them until he reached a classroom he knew would be empty.

"I am so doom…" Tsuna cried and fell on his knees on the floor, thinking about what would the teachers and the discipline principles would do to him. Worst, what would Sasagawa Kyoko, his crush thought about him if rumors regarding him started flying in the school. "No…."

Then the girl cleared her throat to get his attention. Tsuna turned to look at the girl who seemed to be also looking at him, as if trying to figure something out. After feeling himself calm a bit, Tsuna stood up and dusted the dust off his pants and faced the girl directly.

"…I'm sorry for causing you all the troubles." The girl said softly and held her hands together, as if afraid that he would blame her. Tsuna smiled gently and scratched the back of his head, thinking what to say. Indeed she had caused him some troubles but she too had her reason and he was sure she did not do it on purpose.

"It's okay…I'm used to getting myself into trouble. So who are you? Why are you doing here?" Tsuna asked and sat down on the table nearby. He watched the girl stared down on the floor as if she was trying to comprehend whether he could be trusted or not. Perhaps, although not voluntarily and totally unwillingly, he should tell her he too was part of the Vongola family. "Erm…actually I'm…"

"TENTH!"

Gokudera Hayato busted into the empty classroom with Yamamoto following behind him. He mentally cringed when he saw the girl jumped in shock at Gokudera's loud voice and now she was staring at the three of them warily. Tsuna also saw the looks exchanged between the girl and of his guardians. To break the tension between them, Tsuna jumped down from the table and stood between his guardians and the girl.

"So how did you guys know we are here?" Tsuna asked, already knew the answer. It would seem the scene of him running along the school corridor with some unknown girl had spread like wild fire in the school.

"We heard one of the students saying that you er…" Gokudera said but trailed off and clenched his fists in anger as if he remembered something unpleasant. Tsuna knew if he had such expression on his face, it would mean someone had spread fake rumors about him that was enough to cause anger in Gokudera. Seriously, he did not care about that now.

"Ah…well…Dr Shamal tried to take advantage of her…and…haha…you know." Tsuna tried to explain and hoped his friends would take off their guards because apparently the girl had become tenser and tenser.

"Haha…like I thought." Yamamoto said and laughed in his usual carefree way. However Tsuna noticed Yamamoto's smile suddenly being replaced by a serious look and he seemed to be staring pass him; the girl. Slowly, Tsuna turned his head around and found him staring at the tip of a sharp blade. He went pale immediately.

"Who are you people? Why are you guys not surprise with me suddenly appear out of no where? Are you people…one of them?" the girl asked and inched her sword closer to Tsuna's throat.

Tsuna gulped and darted his amber eyes to see Gokudera and Yamamoto both had their hands on their hidden Vongola Gear and he panic, afraid that the classroom would turn into a battlefield and attracted unwanted attention. He was sure the girl would not attack him because she seemed unsure as he was.

"Guys, please, we are in the school." Tsuna said in a firm tone and watched his friends reluctantly remove their hands from the hidden gear that would change into powerful weapons. Tsuna did not want the school being destroyed and the students' safety endangered. "They mean you no harm."

Tsuna watched as the girl cautiously lowered the blade but she did not put it back into the sheath. Tsuna slowly turned around to face the girl as if he did not want to scare her further and raise both his hands in surrender form to show her he carried no weapons.

"…Are you part of the Vongola Family in Italy?" Tsuna asked, wanted to break the tension further but it backfired. The girl raised the blade again in attack mode and his friends quickly stood in front Tsuna to shield him from danger when they saw the act.

"Tenth, please stand back." Gokudera said and reached into his pocket to take out several hand bombs while glaring daggers at the girl. He had half activated his Vongola gear.

"We will handle it." Yamamoto said and his Vongola gear turned into a long samurai sword.

"No! Hey! Wait…!" Tsuna shrieked when he saw his friends were ready to attack. He stole a look at the girl and was surprised to see the stunned look on the girl's face. Quickly, he reached out and pulled hard on his friends' arms to stop them. "WAIT!"

"…the Vongola…gears…" the girl whispered while still looking at Gokudera and Yamamoto's weapons that had the Vongola crest upon them. Finally, she lowered her sword once again and seemed defeated. "…Who are you people?"

Tsuna was surprised to realize the girl knew about the Vongola Gears. In actual, only a few people knew about the changes of Vongola Rings. The fact that she knew meant she was indeed part of the Vongola higher ranks. Perhaps Dino, his senior and the boss of Cavallone, would know about her. Currently Dino was visiting Japan to conduct some businesses so maybe he should bring the girl to see Dino.

"Ah…his name is Gokudera Hayato, and he is Yamamoto Takeshi. They are my friends, do don't worry." Tsuna explained and saw the girl's blue eyes widened with each name mentioned as if she knew of them but never meet them in person before. "And…my name is…"

"…Sawada…Tsunayoshi…?" the girl finished his introduction for him and Tsuna, feeling surprise, nodded in head. He watched the girl went pale in a sudden and he was afraid she would faint again. His friends seemed to have noticed the change in the girl's attitude and have relaxed their guards.

"...Are you…are you the Tenth boss of Vongola now?" the girl asked while putting her sword back into the sheath. Tsuna saw his friends deactivated their Vongola gears as well after seeing the girl had no intention of attacking.

"Ah…well…I have no intention of becoming the boss, I'm sure the Vongola has someone better." Tsuna explained and laughed sheepishly. He disliked fights and conflicts and totally had no intention of ever involving himself in the mafia world, no matter what Vongola Nono and his friends said.

"Tenth, no matter whether you decide to inherit the title, I will always be your right hand man." Gokudera said and puffed out his chest proudly. However he scowled when the dark haired young man Yamamoto came to stand beside Tsuna and placed one of his arm around his shoulder.

"Haha…Tsuna will be a good leader no matter what." Yamamoto said cheerfully, totally relaxing his guards against the girl.

The girl continued to stare at them and Tsuna wondered what she was thinking. Did someone from the Vongola base sent her to come looking for him? Like the time when his dad sent Basil to find him?

"Sawada! Gokudera! Yamamoto! How dare the three of you skip my class!" the teacher's voice called from outside the classroom and Tsuna panicked, afraid that the teacher would ask him too many things that he could not answer. However he could not leave the girl behind knowing that she might be looking for him for help or whatever she needed him since she knew him.

Then as if knowing he was in a dilemma, the girl strode towards the windowed, slid it open and placed her legs over it, before she jumped down, she turned to look at Tsuna one more time.

"I will come look for you later." the girl said before she jumped down from the window. Tsuna and his friends went to the window and to see if the girl was safe after jumping down from the second floor of the building. However they could not find the girl anywhere.

"Haha…she is fast to escape." Yamamoto said and laughed, truly admire the way the girl acted; fast and accurate.

"Tsk, she could be our enemy. Tenth, please don't let down your guard." Gokudera suggested protectively.

Tsuna was still staring at the outside, wondering what she meant by coming to see him later. Did she also know where he lived? Then Tsuna mentally shrieked at the thought that perhaps every Vongola related person, meant the mafias knew where he stayed! _My peaceful live…_

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Regardless what Tsuna said, Enma, Gokudera and Yamamoto all insisted in accompanying him back to his home. While on the way back, Tsuna ignored the usual bickering between Gokudera and Yamamoto and recalled the events after the girl left.

After being caught by their teacher, as expected, the three of them were sent to stand by the corridor, carrying water filled buckets on both hands, letting all the passerby students to see their punishment. Worst of all, Sasagawa Kyoko, the honey color haired girl also happen to pass by and Tsuna felt as if he was back in junior high of being no-good.

"Sigh…what a day…" Tsuna muttered to himself and looked down on the ground while walking along the street to his home. He hoped the girl would not be bringing him anymore bad news.

"SAWADA!" a loud booming voice called out from behind them.

"Shut up, you turf head." Gokudera growled and frowned at the man whose loud voice belonged to.

Tsuna turned around and smiled awkwardly at the white haired young man, Sasagawa Ryohei, Kyoko's brother who was the holder of Sun Vongola Gear.

"Onii-san, it's been a while." Tsuna greeted the white haired young man. Although he was friend with Ryohei but since Ryohei had enrolled into a different high school, school that offered sponsorship to boxing players, they did not meet each other too often anymore.

"Sawada, Yamamoto and octopus head, how you guys doing? Although I heard from Kyoko you guys seem to be doing well but I just want to see for myself for real." Sasagawa Ryohei said and smiled brightly. Although he was sad that his baby sister did not enroll into the same school as him, he was glad that Sawada would be in the same school as Kyoko to look after her. For him, Sawada was a good man who could be relied upon and trusted. "Haha…yea, you guys look well."

After chit chatting for a while, Tsuna said goodbye to Ryohei who said he had to go because he had to meet someone. Tsuna wondered if Ryohei was going on a date with a girl but shook his head to deny the idea. After all, Sasagawa Ryohei had interest in nothing but boxing. Then Tsuna and his friends continued walking back to his house, talking to each other along the walk. When Tsuna reached his house, he opened the door and called out to his mother.

"Mom, I'm back." Tsuna called out and took off his shoes; his friends also do the same. When his mother did not come out to greet him as usual, Tsuna called again. "Mom?"

Walking into the house with his friends following him behind, Tsuna felt something, like an alarm ringing within his head. The house was strangely quiet. His friends also seemed to notice something was wrong as they smelled the scent of food but Sawada Nana and the children were not around.

"…Did your mother happen to bring Lambo and I-Pin out somewhere?" Yamamoto asked but a serious look entered his usually casual face as he felt an eerie feeling in the air. Someone was in the house and that someone was carrying an evil intention. "Tsuna…"

"Yea, I notice." Tsuna said softly and reached his hand into his pocket to take hold of his mittens which can be transformed into battle gloves once he activated his hyper mode. He did not know what was happening but he intended to find out. "Up stairs."

All four of them rushed upstairs with their weapons readied in hands. When they reached the outside of Tsuna's room, Gokudera and Yamamoto stood in front of Tsuna, nodded their heads at each other before Gokudera placed his hand on the knob and turned it open.

"GUYS! WATCH OUT!" Enma shouted as he felt a wave of heavy energy coming towards them. Gokudera and Yamamoto quickly leaped to aside and Enma pushed Tsuna to the floor as a dark sphere shot out and crashed into the wall nearby. "Phew…"

"…Ouch ouch…" Tsuna caressed his chin as it hit the floor when Enma pushed him down. He looked up and sighed when he saw his friends were not hurt. Then in a second, Gokudera and Yamamoto activated their Vongola Gears and rushed into the room.

"SHOW YOURSELF." Gokudera shouted with unlit bombs in his hands. His eyes widened when he saw his boss's room was a mess. He looked around but found no trace of intruders.

"GOKUDERA! LOOK OUT!"

Gokudera turned and looked up; a clocked figure holding spear was aiming the weapon at him. Before the spear even reached him, Yamamoto jumped up and clashed his sword against the spear, sending the spear flying to the other direction.

Tsuna and Enma entered the room and Tsuna gasped when he saw his room was almost destroyed. Then his amber eyes saw a clocked figure slowly descended onto the slashed bed from the ceiling with a huge grin on his half hooded face. Tsuna and Enma shivered when they felt an eerie auras coming from the person.

"Who are you and what do you want!" Gokudera asked fiercely and stood protectively in front of Tsuna. He too had sensed some bad aura from the person and he did not want his boss to be in danger. From the corner of his eye, he saw Yamamoto readied his other sword for attack.

Tsuna mentally shrieked when he watched the hooded figure turned his head around to stare directly at him. Tsuna knew he was targeted and he took a gulp before stepping deeper into the room, shaking his head at his friends when they tried to stop him.

"Where are my mother, Lambo and I-Pin?" Tsuna asked and tried not to tremble too much. If his mother and the children were kidnapped because of him, he would definitely never forgive himself. The hooded person seemed to ponder what he was saying because from the movement of the person's mouth, Tsuna felt that he was as confused as he was. _Mother is not with him…? _

"…Give it to me…" the hooded person whispered.

Tsuna's amber eyes widened slightly when he heard the voice. It sounded like the person was a child. Then he recalled the news he saw this morning regarding missing children. He did not know why he thought of that, perhaps was this person one of the missing children?

"GIVE IT TO ME!" the person suddenly shouted excitedly and sprinted towards Tsuna who was unprepared for such sudden movement. Enma, Gokudera and Yamamoto quickly rushed forward with their weapon raised but they cursed when they realized they could not reach Tsuna on time.

Tsuna saw the person's hand was about to reach him and he closed his eyes, waiting for the person to attack him but when nothing came, he opened his eyes again to see what had happened.

The first thing Tsuna saw was long golden hair down the back of the girl he saw earlier. Tsuna wondered when she arrived at the scene. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his friends also seemed to be surprised by the girl's presence. Suddenly the hooded person screamed in fright and quickly backed away from the girl.

"Do you think you can get away?" the girl whispered.

Tsuna saw the hooded person shivered in fright at the corner of his room. He wondered why the person did not escape to the window and when Tsuna looked at the window, he knew why; the windows were sealed by strings of red lights and when he saw closely, he realized the strings were actually made of flames.

Suddenly the hooded person jumped onto the ceiling and down onto the floor behind Enma who had let down his guard the moment he saw the girl. A knife suddenly appeared in the person's hand and Enma paled when he felt the blade touched his throat.

"ENMA!" Tsuna gasped and wanted to help his friend but his path was blocked by the girl.

"Do not move." The girl ordered and slowly pulled out the sword strapping by her waist. Then in a flash, the girl disappeared and when the moment all of them realized it, she was standing at the back of the person and with a swing of her sword, the person screamed and jumped away, holding his injured hand.

Blood dripped down onto the floor and Tsuna paled. He saw the person's hand was bleeding from the open wound and to think the girl would actually harm a child! Rushing forward, Tsuna took hold of the girl's arm and stopped her from advancing towards the hooded person.

"NO! Stop! It is enough! That child is bleeding!" Tsuna said loudly and tried not to tremble when the girl turned to look at him with hatred within her blue eyes. She tried to shake off his hand but he did not let go. Enma seemed to have realized what Tsuna trying to do and quickly ran towards the windows and with a slash of his gloved hands, the strings disappeared.

"NO!" The girl shouted as she watched the hooded person escaped from the window. When Enma turned around to give signal that the person had escaped, Tsuna finally let go of the girl's arms. Tsuna watched as the girl ran towards the window and looked out. She hit her hands at the frame when she lost the person. Then the girl calmed herself down and turned around to face the guys in the room.

"Do you have any idea what will happen if you let _it_ go?" the girl asked and her blue eyes were filled with irritation.

"That person is just a child." Tsuna said and watched as the girl gave out a loud sigh before placing her sword back into the sheath by her waist. Her blue eyes seemed to be scanning his room and he suddenly remembered his room was destroyed. He sighed sadly.

"Oi, do you know what has happened to Tenth's mother and that cow child and I-Pin?" Gokudera asked and Tsuna was glad he mentioned it.

"…She and I-Pin went to chase after the…cow child who went out to chase after an ice-cream truck." The girl explained. Tsuna sighed in relief when he heard his mother was safe.

"That stupid cow!" Gokudera said angrily and raised his clenched fist, taking note to punch the cow child Lambo the next time he saw him for making his boss worried.

"Hahaha…good to hear they are safe." Yamamoto said cheerfully and laughed.

Tsuna looked at the mess in his room and wondered if it could be fixed. He really did not want to live in the room which Reborn used to store his range of weapons. Even though Reborn was no longer in his house, the weapons were still there in the room, hanging by the wall.

"Wait, where are you going? I have something to ask you." Tsuna asked when he saw the girl went out of his room and was about to walk down the stairs. When the girl turned to look at him and when her blue eyes darted to look beside him, he saw Enma was standing beside him.

"Thanks for saving me earlier." Enma said. He was not smiling because he did not know whether the girl could be trusted.

The girl seemed to be surprised at Enma's thanks and Tsuna saw the girl opened her mouth, as if wanted to say something but closed it again after she seemed to decide not to say anything.

"So who is that child? What did he want?" Tsuna asked. He did hear the child mentioning to give something to him. Did he have the something the child wanted? His gaze dropped to his Vongola Ring on his finger and he wondered if the child was after the ring as well. Over the past two years, he and his friends had encountered several mafia related person who came after their Vongola Gears.

"It's not the ring they wanted." The girl spoke up suddenly as if knowing what Tsuna was thinking. Tsuna looked up and saw the girl seemed to hesitate about something. He wondered if she knew something she did not want the others to know? However he tensed when the girl looked firmly into his eyes before she decided to say.

"It is you they want, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

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A/N: That's all for this chapter. Please review and let me know your thoughts. No pairings ~


	3. Chapter 2

**PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE**

Chapter 2: Maria

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"Kyahahaha…today Lambo-sama played hide and seek with other children." Lambo said and stuffed food into his mouth, ignoring the sauce dripping down his chin.

"Mou, Lambo, here" Sawada Nana, Tsuna's mother said and used a napkin to wipe the sauce from Lambo's chin. She smiled when the cow child beamed up at her.

"Lambo, no table manners!" The girl in red martial art clothing said and pointed a chop stick at the laughing Lambo.

Sitting opposite them, Tsuna looked at the scene with a small smile. At first he had thought his mother, Lambo and I-Pin had been kidnapped and it totally scared the shit out of him. However, he knew this kind of things would still be happening as long as he had ties with mafia.

"Tsu-kun, what is wrong?" His mother asked with a smile.

"No, it's nothing." Tsuna said and turned to look at Lambo who continued to stuff food into his mouth. "Lambo, next time if you go running out like that again, I'll never play with you anymore."

"EHH? Lambo promise not to run out like that anymore. So please play with me, dame-Tsuna?" Lambo said and put down his bowl of food. For Lambo, Tsuna was like an elder brother to him and he liked him, despite him being no good. He smiled brightly when Tsuna nodded his head at him.

After getting the promise from Lambo, Tsuna picked up his chopsticks and began to eat his dinner. However, his gaze slid to the girl sitting next to him who was eating dinner quietly. Maria, she told them her name was Maria.

"…Yes?" Maria asked when she noticed Tsuna looking at her. Her chopstick was halfway to her mouth.

"Ah…umm…nothing." Tsuna said and continued eating. Yamamoto and Gokudera had both declined to join them for dinner because they all have something on their mind concerning the event happened earlier. Tsuna recalled what Maria told him earlier.

"_It is you they want, Sawada Tsunayoshi." _

"_Me?" Tsuna gasped and mentally shrieked. Was he being targeted by another mist users who could posses body? Tsuna wondered why there were so many people who thought him strong when he felt he himself was pathetic and weak. _

"_WHAT! How dare they make Tenth their target!" Gokudera said angrily and clenched his fists in anger. To think that other than that pineapple head Rokudo Mukuro would want to posses his boss. _

"…_What do they want with Tsuna?" Yamamoto asked seriously. He was no longer smiling because his friend was being threatened. Tsuna had saved his life many times and he would never ever abandon him to some dangers. _

_The girl remained silent which pissed Gokudera off. He strode forward and grabbed the girl's collar, wanting to force information out of her but stopped when the girl's stomach growled. Tsuna got out of his trance and watched the girl turned red. _

"_You…you never heard that!" the girl said and turned around to face the wall. _

_Tsuna turned to look at Gokudera and Yamamoto who was looking at him for his decision. Sighing, Tsuna shrugged his shoulders in defeat. It was useless to think about something they had yet to know. Suddenly Tsuna's stomach growled as well, and he blushed in embarrassment. _

"_Ahahaha…ermm…I think we should have dinner first, okay?" Tsuna said awkwardly and laughed. He was no good under such intense situation and he knew he was just finding excuse to avoid the issues. "You will be joining us?" _

_The girl turned her head slightly back to stare at Tsuna. Her face was still flushing red from embarrassment and Tsuna smiled gently as if to tell her it was fine, and no one was laughing at her. _

"_I'm sorry, Tenth. But I think I have to decline your generous invitation to dinner. In order to protect Tenth, I have to do some research on the missing children cases." Gokudera said proudly and went out the room, his minds filled with how to crack into the security systems so he could retrieve the files. _

"_Hmm…I think we should leave too, have to think something over. Sorry, Tsuna." Yamamoto said with an apologetic smile and also went out the room. However in his minds were filled with how to improve his skills since he had almost failed to protect his friends. _

"_Enma too?" Tsuna turned to look at Enma who shook his head. He sighed in relief to think that at least one of his friends would accompany him through this misery. He knew Gokudera and Yamamoto declined to dine with them because they felt defeated and Tsuna hoped they don't take it too serious. Because the last time they went out like this, when they came back, they were injured all over. _

"…_I'll help clean up the mess in Tsuna's room." Enma said and his red eyes scanned the room. He wondered if it could be cleaned up because almost everything was destroyed. _

"_Thanks, Enma. But let's have dinner first." Tsuna said and smiled brightly, happy that his friend would help him clean up the mess. He did not want his mother to see his room because he was scared she might be worried. _

"…_I will help too and also to dine with g…umm…your family." The girl said. _

"_Hey…umm…" Tsuna stammered when the girl's blue eyes once again stared into his eyes. He did not know why but those eyes made him felt very nostalgic as if he had seen them before. After so many things had happened, he still did not know her name, but he did not know how he should ask her. He had very little chance to talk with girls, with the exception of Kyoko and Miura Haru. _

"_Maria. You can just call me…Maria." The girl said and slowly descended down the stairs into the kitchen._

"Maria-chan, how's the food?" his mother's voice ended Tsuna's flashback and bought him back to the table. He turned his gaze to look at the girl Maria and saw her shyly nodded her head, whispering "delicious" while putting food into her mouth.

"If I have known early you would be coming, I would have cooked up some of the food from your country." Sawada Nana said and smiled. She loved children and always welcome Tsuna's friends to visit them and had meal together. "So which country are you from, Maria-chan?"

"…Italy." The girl said shyly and once a while looked up to steal glances at Nana. Tsuna and Enma looked at each other when she mentioned she was from Italy; then it would mean she was mafia-related.

"Tsu-kun's tutor is from Italy also, hmm…but you don't look much like Italian." Sawada Nana said while staring at the girl's beautiful golden hair and fair complexion. According to her husband, most Italian had dark hair and tanned skin. Tsuna watched as Maria nodded her head again. Does it mean she was not Italian?

"…My mother is from France." Maria said and a very small smile appeared on her lips when she thought of her mother; beautiful, gentle, caring, and her father's beloved person whom she could only remember via photos. "But she passed away when I was young."

"Oh…I'm sorry." Sawada Nana apologized with real concerns. Tsuna watched the girl shook her head and looked down on the plate of food before her with a sad smile.

"I don't remember much of her anyway…but papa…my father always tells me stories of how they met and what a wonderful person she was." Maria said and her gaze darted to find Tsuna looking at her again. "They say I looked like her."

"She must be very beautiful then." His mother said and Tsuna saw Maria's face flushed red in embarrassment. He almost chuckled at the girl's cuteness if he did not remember the way she injured the child. From the way she looked at the child and the way she spoke to them, it was as if she had known them for a long time. Could it be the people she was chasing was those children, and why did she want to chase them? In fact, from the way the child reacted to her, fear, it was as if it was not the first time she had hurt the child.

"Are you visiting some friends here?" his mother asked and Tsuna wondered how the girl would answer. Enma also seemed to be interested at the girl's answer and they both waited patiently for her to answer. They saw Maria hesitated for awhile before she opened her mouth to speak.

"I come here…to look for my missing brother."

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Like usual, Tsuna entered into his classroom and like usual, greeted by Gokudera and Yamamoto. He yawned as he walked towards his seat and was greeted by a worried Enma.

"Tsuna, are you alright?" Enma asked with concern.

"Yea…too many things happen yesterday...so I couldn't sleep well last night." Tsuna said and placed his bag down before taking his seat. The girl Maria ended up staying at his house because his mother asked her to. However Tsuna was surprised to see the girl to be so agreeable to whatever his mother said.

"So where is Maria? Did she follow you to school?" Enma asked. He knew the girl stayed at Tsuna's house last night. Strangely, he did not feel any threat from the girl. Maybe it was because he heard the girl had a sad past and now that her brother had been kidnapped.

"Not sure…mother said she went out early in the morning and had not been back since. I just hope she is not doing anything dangerous." Tsuna said and rested his forehead on the table. He hoped Maria would not be looking for the children because then he would not be there to stop her from hurting them. Regardless of whatever reason she had, it was wrong to hurt children.

"Tenth!"

Tsuna looked up when he heard Gokudera calling him. He sat up straight when he saw a serious look on his face and he wondered what he discovered from yesterday's event. Gokudera was smart and he could analyze something in a very clear way.

"I cracked into the local forces' security systems and found some pictures of the missing children. Look here, Tenth." Gokudera said and handed Tsuna a folder. After making sure the other students were not near enough to hear them, Tsuna whispered a thanks and open the folder. What he saw in the folder shook him.

"…flames…?" Tsuna whispered to himself as he looked at the pictures. In every photo taken when the children went missing, the children seemed to be glowing. However since Tsuna was familiar with flames, he immediately realized the glows was flames. He scanned through all the photos.

"Each of them was covered in different type of flames..." Enma said as he also looked at the photos. From the first photo to the last, the children were covered in storm, rain, thunder, sun, cloud, and mist attribute flames respectively. He wondered if such phenomena had something to do with Vongola's flames as well.

"Shouldn't there only be five missing children?" Yamamoto asked as he came to stand beside Tsuna's table to look at the photos as well. Yesterday after he came back from Tsuna's house, he had stayed whole night at his dojo training.

"Another child went missing last night." Gokudera said gloomily and pointed his finger at the mist flame covered child. Everyone looked at the photo of a little girl about the age of ten hugging a teddy bear and frowned.

"…Then another child should be missing as well…if we look at it this way." Gokudera said and looked at Tsuna. Everyone seemed to have guessed what Gokudera said and looked at Tsuna.

"…You mean a child with sky flame will disappear soon." Tsuna whispered softly and clenched his fists. He did not know what was really happing but he did know six children living in Namimori had gone missing; one turned up to attack him and was injured. He wondered what happened to the children and what do they want with him.

Tsuna wondered when would the cycle stopped. Just because he was the descendent of the great Vongola Primo, he had been forced to accept the role of boss candidate. Although he had refused several times, circumstances forced him to involve himself with battles with other mafia gang such as Varia, Millifiore, and some other Mafioso. To make him feel worst, he had to drag his friends along into the battle with him and he was forced to see them covered in injuries and unable to say anything.

He remembered when travelling to the future, the adult Yamamoto informed him that the future him doubted the existence of Mafia and always wondered if the existence of Vongola was needed. The future him had even destroyed the Vongola Rings to prevent battles among Mafioso. At first he did not understand why the future him did such a thing since they had to go through battle with Varia to finally obtain the Rings, now he understood his feeling; he did not want his friends to involve in something dangerous because of him.

Although Maria had said it was not the Rings they wanted but him instead, but Tsuna had a feeling that it had something to do with him being the Vongola boss candidate. Again, Vongola had wrecked his normally peaceful life.

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Maria entered into an old abandoned warehouse after she sensed the aura of the people she was looking for. With her hand clutching tight onto the sword her uncle provided to her, she stepped deeper into the warehouse.

"Come out now, you cowards." Maria spoke up and heard her own voice echoed throughout the warehouse. Her blue eyes carefully scanned her surrounding in case those people decided to ambush her like last time. Suddenly she heard a sound.

Straining her ears to hear where the sound came from, Maria slowly followed the trace towards the sound. As she got nearer, she realized the sound was actually the sound of a little girl's sobbing. When she stepped into a corner filled with wooded caskets, her blue eyes widened in shock at what she saw.

It was a little girl with long blond hair tied up in two pony tails hugging a toy rabbit. The little girl's teary blue eyes stared sadly into her own.

"_Dove mio fratello è?_" the little girl asked in Italian.

Without second thought, Maria raised her sword and slashed through the little girl and the little girl faded into the shadows.

"Illusions will not work on me." Maria said fiercely and glared at the shadows. She was angry now because whoever casted the illusion had managed to peek into her heart. The little girl she slashed was the younger version of her, the age when her brother went missing.

"_È la mia colpa che il fratello grande è andato per mancare_." The little girl's voice said from behind Maria and Maria turned around to slash the illusion again. When the illusion faded again, echoes of giggles could be heard throughout the warehouse.

Suddenly, a chill went down her spine and she froze.

Her surrounding suddenly became very quiet and she forced herself not to shiver when she suddenly felt coldness against her skins. The hair at the back of her neck stood up, warning her that something horrible was coming her way.

"Don't involve yourself in this further more, Maria." An emotionless voice spoke up and suddenly Maria felt herself engulfed in orange flames. She forced down her scream as the flame pierce her skins and kept her tears, unwilling to let her enemies see her moment of weakness. Forcing herself, she looked up to see who were speaking and her blue eyes widened in shock when she stared into a pair of cold amber eyes.

"Why…" Maria whispered and for a moment, her guards were down and the enemy used that moment to strengthen the flame power and Maria screamed in pain.

Laughers and giggles once again echoed throughout the warehouse and the last thing Maria saw before she collapsed onto the ground was a small chirping yellow creature singing "Hibari, Hibari." Then darkness surrounded her.

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After classes over, Tsuna and his friends went to Tsuna's house as usual. When Tsuna entered into the house, he was shocked to see his school prefect, the fearless Hibari Kyoya standing at his foyer with an emotionless expression on his usually bored face. Tsuna gulped, wondering what he had done to cause the fearless Cloud Guardian to come into his house but he relaxed slightly when he saw Hibari was not carrying his tonfas.

"Hi…Hibari? Why…?" Tsuna stammered and raised his hands in surrender forms, going to apologize for whatever he had done that had pissed him off even thought he could not remember whatever he had done that pissed him off.

"Herbivore, you should go look after the younger herbivore and don't let her run off again." Hibari said and with that, he walked passed the guys and walked out the house, leaving Tsuna and the others to look at each other in total confusion.

"Huh? What the hell did he mean?" Gokudera said grumpily.

"Younger herbivore?" Enma said in confusion, wondering who that scary prefect was talking about. Usually he called everyone herbivores regardless their age. Did he mean the children? "Lambo and I-Pin?"

Tsuna strained his ears and sighed in relief when he heard the sound of Lambo and I-Pin playing games in his room. Then he saw his mother coming down from the stairs carrying first aid box and a worried expression on her face. He quickly went to his mother and was shocked to see some bandages tainted with blood.

"What happened? Who is hurt?" Tsuna asked worriedly.

"It's Maria…Hibari says she ran into some thugs and they beat her up." His mother said and Tsuna quickly leaped upstairs and into the guess room where Maria shared with Bianchi. When he opened the door, he saw Bianchi was taking care of a seemingly pale Maria lying on the bed with a suffer expression on her face. To Tsuna, she did not seem beat up but more like she caught herself in flames because Tsuna himself was familiar with the injuries when he practiced his X-Burner.

"Sis…augh…" Gokudera came into the room but knelt down holding his stomach the moment he saw his sister in the room. Gokudera had phobia of seeing his sister's face due to his childhood experiences of being poisoned by his sister almost everyday.

"…Tsuna, I'll take Gokudera to another room." Yamamoto said and helped Gokudera on his feet before helped him out of the room. When they were out, Enma closed the door, knowing Tsuna had something to ask that he did not want his mother to hear.

"Why is she covered in injuries caused by sky flames?" Tsuna asked with a sad look on his face. He wondered had another child went missing already. And did Maria happen to encounter those children again and was that why she was injured. He watched Bianchi shook her head and frowned down at the girl lying on the bed.

Tsuna stepped forward and stood beside the bed. His amber eyes looked at the injuries covered the girl's face and arms, and he was sure she had injuries in other part of body as well. When Tsuna saw Maria's blue eyes flickered as if trying to open them, Tsuna quickly took hold of her hand and was shocked as he felt how feverish she was.

"What…! She is burning up!" Tsuna said and turned to look at Bianchi who shook her head. "She has a fever!"

"No, her power is going berserk." Bianchi said firmly and looked down at Maria.

Tsuna tightened his hold on her hand as he felt Maria's hold on his hand. She seemed to be in a lot of pain. Tsuna watched as Maria opened her eyes and her blue eyes stared unfocusly at him.

"…I'll…be…fine…just need…rest…" Maria whispered weakly and closed her eyes again, still holding Tsuna's hand.

When Bianchi stood up from her seat beside the bed, Tsuna took the seat and sat down. His amber eyes stared worriedly at the girl before him. He did not know why, but he felt close to her, as if he had known her for a long time but he was sure he had never seen her before until yesterday.

"Tsuna, you need something?" Enma asked from the door and Tsuna shook his head. Since Maria had said she just needed rest to recover from her injuries, then Tsuna would give her rest. He did not even notice when Enma left the room and closed the door behind him.

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Hibari Kyoya went into his office in the school he governed and when he closed the door behind him, the little yellow bird, Hibird flew from his shoulder to rest on a make shift nest on the desk table.

Going behind his desk, Hibari sat down on his leather arm chair and pulled out the drawer. His dark eyes stared at a white envelope lying there. He reached his hand into the drawer and took out the envelope; At the back of the envelope had the Vongola wax crest. Opening the envelope, Hibari pulled out a letter from within.

His dark eyes scanned the content of the letter and as he put down the letter on his desk, a smirk appeared on his face.

"Interesting…" he whispered.

_Please take care of her…_

_Vongola X _

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A/N: That's all for this chapter. Ciao ~


	4. Chapter 3

**PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE**

Chapter 3: The Gathering

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_In a garden filled with many types of flowers and plants, an adult man in black suit and a young boy were holding hands while a small girl was running around them and under their raised arms. All three of them were laughing. _

"_London Bridge is falling down..._

_Falling down…_

_Falling down…_

_London Bridge is falling down…_

_My fair lady…"_

_She laughed when her brother and father placed their arms around her and hugged her together. She pouted cutely at her brother who teased her for being a slow poke and she squealed in surprise when her father took her into his arms and raised her high above the ground. She looked up at the sky. It was a beautiful day. The sky was crystal clear and the sun was bright. She could also hear the chirping sounds of the birds, and smell the scent of flowers in the gardens. _

_When her father placed her down onto the ground, she ran towards a swing hanging from a huge tree near a lake, laughing and giggling all the way with her brother chasing behind her. _

_When they reached the swing, her brother stood onto the swing and held out his hand for her. The small girl giggled and held onto his hand so he could haul her up onto the swing. When the bother of them were in the swing, the small girl looked at her father who just reached them. _

"_Push the swing, papa. Push the swing." The small girls plead and laughed again when her father pushed the swing steadily, laughing also._

_She looked at her brother who was also looking down at her with his smiling eyes. She loved these moments when she spent time together with her family. She loved her brother and father because no matter how busy they were, they would always give her their time. _

"_Papa, onii-chan, I love you the most!" The small girl said happily and laughed again. _

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Tsuna slowly opened his amber eyes and found him falling asleep on the seat beside the bed where Maria laid. Judging from the color of the sky outside, it should be midnight already. Just then, Tsuna felt someone squeezed on his hand and he looked down, realizing that he was still holding hand with Maria.

Then he saw a droplet of water dripped onto his hand and he wondered where the water came from. Raising his other hand, Tsuna touched his own face and was surprised to feel his cheek wetted with tears.

"Why…?" Tsuna whispered to himself and quickly used his sleeve to rub off the tears on his face. He did not know why he cried but it must be something to do with the dream he just had. Then he realized he remembered the dream. Tsuna looked down on his hand which was holding Maria's hand and wondered if the dream belonged to hers since the little girl in the dream looked so much like her, but much happier and younger. The dream also gave him a feeling of happiness yet at the same time, sadness.

"Maria?" Tsuna whispered softly. When the girl on the bed gave no response, Tsuna guessed she must be still asleep. Reaching out a hand to place on her forehead, Tsuna sighed in relief when he felt she was no longer feverish.

Gently letting go of her hand, Tsuna slowly got up from the seat and went out of the room. When he reached the corridor, he saw some lights from the kitchen downstairs. He wondered if someone was still awake and what was the person doing in the kitchen.

Descending down the stairs, Tsuna entered into the kitchen and was surprised to see seventeen years old Lambo sitting by the table, drinking a glass of milk. Tsuna smiled awkwardly, knowing that Lambo must had accidently shoot himself with the ten years bazooka.

"Oh…young Vongola, it's been a long time." Lambo greeted.

"Yea…how long have you been here?" Tsuna asked and sat down opposite the young man. He then poured himself a glass of milk. He looked at the clock hanging by the wall and realized it was going to be morning soon.

"Just arrive here. I woke up when I realized how cramp the bed is…" Lambo explained and rubbed his neck as if in pain there. Tsuna chuckled. He could very imagine an adult Lambo waking up in the bed with Fuuta and I-Pin.

Tsuna stared at his glass of milk and remained quiet. Then he remembered the silver locket Maria carried with her and a thought came into this mind. Obviously Maria was from the Vongola Family yet Dr Shamal did not seem to recognize her, so another probability was Maria was actually from other time, like adult Lambo. Since the people in the future were able to invent time machine, it was no surprise to him to see people traveling through time anymore.

"Ne, Lambo, do you know a girl by the name Maria? She has blond hair and blue eyes…about my age…and has the sky flame." Tsuna asked and watched the young man closed his eyes as if searching his memories about the description he just gave him. "I think she is part of Vongola."

"Nope. No one like that." Adult Lambo replied and shook his head. He did know someone from his time with blond hair and blue eyes and part of Vongola, or should he say one of the alliance families' members but that person did not have the ability to use flames. "Why are you asking that?"

"Ah…no…it's okay." Tsuna said, slightly disappointed at his guess. Getting up, Tsuna finished the glass of milk in one gulp and turned to look at the adult Lambo before saying.

"You should go back to Lambo's room or young Lambo will end up sleeping in the kitchen."

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Tsuna stood in front of a huge door with two delinquents standing guard beside the door. The office inside belonged to the school's most feared prefect, Hibari Kyoya. Taking a huge gulp and a deep breath, Tsuna gave out his all and knocked on the door politely.

"Hibari? It's me, Tsuna. I want to…hmmm…wish to talk to you something about Maria…err…the girl you brought to my home yesterday." Tsuna said. His heart was pumping hard because he could feel the tension in the air. He knew Hibari did not like to have people crowded around him or to have people disturbing him on whatever he was doing. After a moment of waiting in quiet, the door finally cracked opened and Hibari's pet bird called out.

"Herbivore, herbivore."

Tsuna took that as a sign that Hibari had allowed him to go into his office. Taking another deep breath, Tsuna stepped into the office and when the door behind him closed with a thud, he gulped.

"What do you want, Herbivore. You know the consequences of disturbing my rest." Hibari Kyoya said from his seat. He looked bored and tired but Tsuna knew once he got pissed off, he would be biting his head off.

"Ano…ermm…first I want to thank you for taking Maria home…" Tsuna said slowly and his amber eyes looked at the ground as he said so. An image of Maria covered in bruises and burnt flashed through his mind and Tsuna clenched his fists before looking up, staring determinedly at the fearless Cloud Vongola Gear holder. "I want to know what really happened to her."

"Oh ~" Hibari Kyoya spoke and crossed his arms against his chest. His expression no longer looked bored because the person he thought was weak suddenly gave out a strong aura. "What is it you want to know?"

"Everything you see there. The people you meet…and the weapons they used." Tsuna said firmly. He was sure Maria was looking for him for help, maybe to find her missing brother, but she needed his help and he had failed to protect her. "Please."

Hibari Kyoya thought of rejecting the herbivore to make things interesting but he recalled the contents of the letter and frowned.

"Herbivore, do you know who the girl is and where is she from?" Hibari asked and waited for the herbivore to reply.

"…Not much other than her name and she seems to be looking for her brother." Tsuna answered, skipping the part where he thought she might be part of Vongola Family. He did not know why Hibari wanted to know; perhaps he thought the girl was a threat to Namimori. "She is not a bad person!"

"…That's all?" Hibari asked and wondered did the herbivore not know who the girl was. Although to him the girl called Maria did not matter to him, but she was indeed an important person to everything that was happening now.

Tsuna frowned when he saw the expression on Hibari's face. The look seemed to tell him that Hibari was planning something that only he would think would be interesting.

"Fine. I'll tell you what I saw that day." Hibari said and closed his eyes, trying to recall that day when his nap was being disturbed by a letter dropping onto his head from the sky.

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"_Hibari, Hibari." The little girl named Hibird chirped and flew in circle above Hibari Kyoya's head. The bird was carrying a letter within its small claws and it purposely dropped the letter onto the head of the person below._

_Feeling disturbed and a slight weight on his head, Hibari opened his eyes and yawned. Feeling annoyed because his rest was disturbed, he reached his hand out and took the letter from his head. He frowned when his eyes saw the red seal of the Vongola crest. _

"…_Those herbivores trying to mess up Namimori again?" Hibari whispered to himself and tore open the letter. His eyes quickly scanned through the letter and a spark of interest entered into his dark eyes. Getting up, he took up his tonfas and looked up at his bird still flying above him._

"_Go find the suspicious people at the outskirt." He ordered and the bird chirped and flew away. _

_After almost half and hour, his bird flew back and chirped. Hibari nodded his head and followed the bird into the forest and after a short walk, they reached an abandoned factory. Hibari's dark eyes scanned the surrounding area. He was not familiar with this place but he made a note to have his subordinate survey this place later. _

_Suddenly a feminine screamed came from the factory. Hibari quickly ran towards the factory with his tonfas readied for attack. When he stepped into the factory, he saw a girl in foreign looking uniform engulfed in flames lying on the ground. From the look of it, she had lost consciousness. _

"_Hibari, Hibari." His bird chirped and landed on his shoulder. Frowning, Hibari looked up and saw seven hooded figure standing high on crates. He could not see their face but he knew other than the one standing in the middle, the rest of the people was children. _

"_Who are you people?" Hibari asked fiercely. He saw them as a threat to Namimori peace and he would never forgive people who disturbed it. Rising his tonfas, Hibari leaped into the air and onto the crates where the people were and smirked when his tonfas were about to hit the person standing in the middle. _

"…_It's no use." The person said and reached out a hand with his palm facing him. Sensing danger, Hibari quickly docked and at that moment, a blast of flames shoot out from the person's hand and the wall at the opposite side got hit and melted from the heat. _

_Hibari whistled and smiled. He liked to battle strong people and that person was strong. However, he did not like the feeling he got when he neared him; it was as if he had an empty presence. _

"_Can we kill him?" one of the hooded people said and the sound sounded very much like a little girl. Hibari had also been following the cases of missing children because these children were part of Namimori. _

_He docked when a spear suddenly dropped down beside him and he blocked when someone suddenly appeared behind him and attack with a sword covered in flame. From the look of it, the same flame attribute as him, cloud. _

_Using his tonfas, he pushed the person with the sword away and jumped when a string of arrows rained down upon where he stood earlier. "The ability to multiply…" _

_Suddenly, he felt an eerie feeling covered the entire area and he frowned. Rising his tonfas, he readied himself to attack again but a movement below stopped his actions._

_The girl who had been unconscious was standing up and staring at them. However looking closely, her blue eyes were empty as if she was sleepwalking. His dark eyes widened when the girl raised her hand and a huge sphere of flame appeared and become bigger and bigger with every seconds. If she shot out that sphere, the whole place would be destroyed._

"_Uh oh, we have to go." One of the hooded people said and all of them nodded their head. One by one they disappeared and the person standing in the middle took a lingering glance at them before it too, disappeared. _

"_Tsk." Hibari frowned when he lost his preys and he then turned back to look at the girl. She had not stopped her attack. "Going berserk?" _

_Raising his tonfas, Hibari charged. He did not want the new place to be destroyed because he had yet to survey this area. When he neared the girl, he called out._

"_Maki." _

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"Eh…?" Tsuna spoke up when Hibari finished telling him the situation. Although most of the part Tsuna did not really understand but he did knew one thing. Hibari attacked Maria when her power went berserk. Was that why Maria also had injuries caused by hard weapon?

"You attack her! She is just a…Hibari!" Tsuna accused and clenched his fists.

"Hmph, she is not so weak that you need to defend her, herbivore." Hibari said and stood up. He smirked when the herbivore did not back away in fear liked he always used to do but stood firm on his ground and glaring at him. Hibari shrugged his shoulders and raised his left arm, sliding his sleeve down to show him the burnt skin.

"Hibari…that is…!" Tsuna exclaimed as his amber eyes looked at the injuries on Hibari's arm. The burnt looked much more serious than the burnt on Maria. From the look of it, the injuries were not caused by the same person who hurt Maria. Tsuna's amber eyes darkened and whispered. "Maria…did this?"

Tsuna watched as Hibari rolled down his sleeve again to cover the injuries and shrugged his shoulders again. Hibari did mention he tried to stop Maria's power from going berserk further. He felt ashamed because for one moment he actually blamed Hibari for harming Maria when Hibari was just trying to stop her.

"Sorry…have Dr Shamal treated you?" Tsuna asked but his amber eyes widened when a tonfa come flying towards him and Tsuna shrieked and dodged in time and he paled when the tonfa hit the wall behind him, creating a hole on the wall. He gulped.

"You have had what you wanted. Now get out of my office or I'll bite you to death." Hibari warned and raised his remaining tonfa, looking ready to fight. Tsuna shrieked again and ran out of the office.

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"So Tsuna, what are you going to do with the girl?" Enma asked as he walked beside Tsuna who looked as if he was thinking something. Currently they were walking along the river bank where he always fed the stray cats.

"Hmm…not sure….but I can't leave her knowing she is in danger." Tsuna said and looked at his own reflection at the river and he thought he looked like the boy, Maria's brother in the dream he had earlier. He shook his head, dismissing the though.

"Those people who attack Maria…they are the same people who attack you, yes?" Enma asked again and recalled the hooded person who came into Tsuna's house and launched a powerful attack.

Tsuna remained quiet. Regarding those hooded people, even Hibari felt that they were the missing children from Namimori. He wondered again why the missing children would suddenly possessed abilities to use flames and grouped together to attack him. Sighing, Tsuna just hoped things would not go complicated now that Reborn was not here.

When he and Enma reached under a bridge, he smiled when he saw several stray cats came upon them. He knelt down and caressed one of the cats that came up to snuggle against him. While Enma was pouring food down into the bowls, Tsuna sat on the grass ground and looked at the river.

"BOO!"

"HIEEE!"

Tsuna shrieked and stood up before running towards the river bank and turned around to look at the person who made the voice behind him. His amber eyes widened in surprise as he stared at a man with shoulder length golden hair and tattoos on his arm.

"Dino!" Tsuna said and relaxed himself. He had thought the hooded person came to attack him again. "What are you doing here?"

"Ahaha…sorry for scaring you, Tsuna...but you look so serious…can't help it." Dino, the boss of Cavallone Family and Tsuna's senior said and laughed sheepishly.

Tsuna smiled and from the corner of his eyes, he saw Enma also relaxed his guards when he too realized it was only Dino. Tsuna watched as Dino waved goodbye to his subordinates and watched the limos drove away. Then Tsuna tensed when Dino suddenly turned around and looked at them with a serious look on his face.

"Actually, Tsuna, the reason I'm here is because I want to warn you about something." Dino said seriously. Tsuna and Enma looked at each other, wondering what Dino was trying to say.

"Recently, I encountered some attacks from some mysterious people. They look like children but I'm not sure…" Dino said and recalled a few days ago he was being attacked by two hooded people within his own mansion. Although he had managed to protect himself, but he knew those people had not even used their full strengths.

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"_Who are you people!" Dino asked and held tightly onto his whip. His subordinates were carrying guns around him, aiming their weapons at the intruders. Suddenly, a huge burst of flames exploded from the ground, knocking most of his subordinates off. _

"_Hahaha…they are weak." One of the intruders said and giggled. _

"…_Do we really have to take him? He looks like a wimp." Another intruder said while pointing its finger at Dino who was glaring at them. _

"_Not much choice. Our mission is to take back all the Sky Flame Users with us back to boss, regardless how weak he is." The first intruder said and shrugged its shoulders. _

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"All the Sky Flame users?" Tsuna exclaimed and his amber eyes widened in shock. Could it be what Maria meant when she said he was their target instead of the Vongola Ring? Tsuna shivered when he thought of being used for some evil plans.

"Not sure. From the sound of it…so you already met them?" Dino asked. He had not expected Tsuna to get attacked so fast either but when he did not seemed to be so shock, Dino knew he had already encountered them.

"…Did you defeat them?" Enma asked, wanted to know if Dino had managed to defeat those powerful people. He watched as Dino scratched the back of his head and knew he did not defeat them. "How did you escape?"

"Ah…Varia arrives to help…haha…" Dino said and laughed sheepishly. Tsuna shuddered at the mention of Varia. Varia was Vongola's independent assassination organization and its boss was none other than Vongola Nono's adopted son, the bad tempered Xanxus.

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"_Boss, we have to retreat, they are too strong." Romario, one of his most trusted subordinate said and held onto his injured arm. Too many of their people were injured and the mansion was on fire. To think just two intruders could deal such damages already…_

"_Tsk…okay. I'll hold them back while you and the others carry the wounded out." Dino demanded and strode towards the two intruders. Romario hesitated for a while before nodding his head and headed towards the opposite direction. _

"_We are sorry for causing you so much trouble but you need not fight us. We are not here to harm you." One of the intruders said and reached out its hand towards him, as if it wanted him to accept it. Dino looked at the wounded around him and then turned back to glare at the intruders. They had hurt too many of his comrades to have his forgiveness now. _

"_Sorry, I'm not that type of person who will betray his comrades. Furthermore, I am their boss; it will be a shame if I look so weak in front of them." Dino said and charged._

"_VOI-!" _

_Dino froze his attack when he heard the booming voice. Looking up, he saw a certain man with long silver hair standing by the stairs above them. His amber eyes widened in surprise when he saw the battle commander of Varia, Superbi Squalo._

"_What…? How…?" Dino stammered and backed away from Squalo jumped down from the stairs and in front of him. "Why are you here?" _

"_Ceh, just following ninth's order." Squalo said and looked at the intruders with interest. Following Vongola Ninth's order, he had led almost three hundred men to Jumping Horse Dino's mansion, at first he did not know why he needed to have so many men to come but when he saw the mansion under attack, he knew they were facing some very powerful enemies. When Vongola was under attack, no matter how deep the grudge ran among inside families, they would always held on together to fight the outside forces. _

"…_Tsk…another disturbance." The intruders said and frowned. Rising their hands, they prepared to shoot out another blast of flames that had injured most of the people. Dino saw the blast coming and warned Squalo but he only smirked in reply. _

_When the blast almost reached Squalo and Dino, suddenly it disappeared. Dino stared at the scene with a dumbfounded expression and wondered what was happening at the moment. He stole a glance at the intruders and was able to notice them too, seemed shock. _

"_No good, time to retreat." One of the intruders said and the other nodded its head. Both of them disappeared among the mist that suddenly appeared. _

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"Thank god you are alright, Dino." Tsuna said and sighed in relieved. He knew Dino was strong but compared to those people who gave him an eerie feeling, he was not sure if Dino would be able to defeat them.

"Haha…barely. I almost thought I'm going to be dead meat if not for Squalo." Dino said then he reached his hand into his pocket to take out a letter. He smiled and handed it to Tsuna who hesitantly took it from Dino. Tsuna's amber eyes widened when he saw the Vongola seal at the back of the envelope. "From Vongola Nono."

Tsuna slowly opened the letter, aware that Enma was looking into the letter from sideway too. Unfolding the letter fully, Tsuna's amber eyes quickly scanned the contents and then he paled. Enma seemed to be in shock either.

It would seem Vongola Nono had predicted such an attack on the users of sky flame from a trusting source. Since the Sky flame users were looked upon as sacred and only very few people in the world carried sky flames, Tsuna was among the few, these people must be protected at all cost. So in order to do so, Vongola Nono had gathered every sky flame users available to gather in Namimori, Japan.

"So everyone is here…" Tsuna whispered to himself and recalled all the sky flame users he encountered before; Dino, Xanxus, Byakuran….

"Xanxus and Byakuran?" Tsuna whispered chokingly and paled at the thought of his most feared enemies. Xanxus who tried to kill him and Byakuran who tried or should he say did destroy the whole Vongola. "Don't tell me…"

"Ahahaha…" Dino laughed sheepishly and looked at aside, ignoring Tsuna's glance.

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Inside the grand hotel, the members of Varia; battle commander Squalo, Lussuria, Leviathan and Belphegor all seemed to be relaxed at the hall. Squalo was reading a book on sofa, Lussuria was doing Yoga in front of the TV, Leviathan was standing by a door leading to a room, and Belphegor was playing with his knifes beside a piano.

"Say, what are we doing here again?" Belphegor asked and used his knife to scratch the piano's surface, getting attention from Squalo who heard the sound and turned to glare at him.

"It is because Vongola Nono asks us to come here to protect boss." Squalo explained and glared at the prince. If he damaged the piano, he would have to pay for it and deducted the fees from Belphegor's salary.

"Can't we protect the boss back in Italy?" Lussuria asked while bending in a weird position, however still wearing his sunglasses.

Squalo kept quiet. Actually he had heard the full story from Vongola Nono and although he was still shock from the knowledge but he knew he had to keep quiet for their own good. One of the reasons they came here was to protect all the sky flame users, including his boss's most hated person Sawada Tsunayoshi.

"Ah, something crashed inside boss's room." Levi said and plastered his ear against the door and Bel thought he looked like a total pervert. Grinning, Bel aimed his knife at Levi's butt.

"Voi, stop that. It'll just dirty your knife." Squalo said and stood up, walking towards their boss's room. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Bel pouted and put down his knife. When Squalo reached the door, he glared at the mustache man blocking the way. Rising a leg, he kicked the nuisance man aside, ignoring his cried of pain and Bel's cheers and opened the door.

He dodged when an empty glass flew passed his head and crashed into the wall behind him. He had to pay for damage again…

"Hey, why in the hell did you do that! You don't own the hotel, okay!" Squalo said loudly and dodged another glass flying towards him, however the glass hit Levi right in the face and he ignored the man fainted on the carpeted floor. "VOI!"

"Shut up, trash." The man sitting on the bed spoke up and a pair of red eyes glared ferociously at the silver haired man. Xanxus, the leader of Varia and the most feared by everyone in the Vongola sat on the king size bed with a crumpled letter within his hand.

Squalo paled, knowing that Xanxus had managed to find out the truth of them travelling to Japan. In the first place, he had actually lied to Xanxus saying that the reason they came to Japan was to have a leisure gourmet trip. He did not want his boss to know about the attack or else his boss would surely, definitely purposely made he vulnerable for attack so he could attack his attackers. Not that Squalo did not think it was a good idea, but this time it involve the others and he too had accepted Vongola Nono's request to protect those brats.

"…Who pass you that letter?" Squalo asked and realized that letter belonged to him and he thought he had hid it very well under his bed back in the mansion. His boss continued to glare at him and then he saw a shadow moved from behind his boss and his grey eyes widened in surprise to see a young girl clad in traditional kimono.

"I found the letter under your bed; I thought it is a love letter…sorry." The young girl said and smiled so sweetly up at him but Squalo could not be swayed because he knew under that sweet smile was a tigress.

"What…why are you doing here, Kagura?" Squalo asked and watched the girl placed her arms around the glaring Xanxus who also surprised him because he allowed the young girl to touch him. Usually, female or male, whoever touched Xanxus would be blasted by his gun. "Is Vongola Nono here?"

Squalo remembered seeing the young girl Kagura when Vongola Nono told him to go meet him in the Vongola mansion. Inside Nono's secret meeting room, Nono introduced some people to him, saying that they were the ones telling him they would be under attack. Kagura was one of them but he had not heard that they would be following them to Japan.

"I don't think so. I travel here on my own because I have someone I want to meet. I heard she is here." The young girl said and let go of arms around Xanxus neck. Squalo watched as the girl seemed to whisper something near his boss's ear and after a while, Xanxus calmed himself down.

"Whatever you like. Just get me my whiskey." Xanxus said in his husky voice and closed his eyes, crossing his arms against his chest. He did not care if someone out there was trying to kidnap him or whatever as long as he could do it his way; he was fine with every arrangement. "And my premium steak."

The young girl smiled and get off from the bed. After she took a bow at Xanxus, she turned and walked politely towards Squalo who was still looking at them dumbfounded. Smiling sweetly up at the silver haired man, the young girl laced her arm around his right arm and said.

"Let's go and visit Sawada Tsunayoshi. I think my cousin is staying in his house."

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Outside somewhere near Sawada Residence, a young man with white hair sat upon a light pole and grinned. A small white dragon with tiny wings slid up around his arm and also looked at the house.

"Wonder how he will react after seeing me ~" the young man said and whistled happily.

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A/N: That's all for this chapter ~


	5. Chapter 4

**PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE**

Chapter 4: The Guardians

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_A man holding the hand of a little girl walked side by side by a lake in the middle of a rose garden. The little girl beamed up at her beloved father and nodded happily at something he said. After that, the little girl let go of her father's hand and ran forward, laughing._

_Tsuna smiled, looking at the peaceful scene displayed before him. He knew he was dreaming of Maria's past again and he wondered why he was able to do so. Did someone was trying to tell him something? Or was someone trying to reach out to him?_

"_Hurry! Hurry! The tea party is starting!" little Maria called out and wave her hand at her beloved father. _

_Tsuna saw the man started to jog towards little Maria and still smiling, Tsuna followed close behind. No long later, Tsuna saw a tall shady tree came into view and he saw a group of children gathering under the tree. _

"_Onii-chan~" little Maria called out and ran as fast as she could with her chubby little legs towards a young boy with messy brown hair. Tsuna thought the young boy looked a lot like him but it was impossible, right? _

_Tsuna saw the young boy took the offered hand of little Maria and both of them ran towards the group of children with their father closed behind them. From afar, Tsuna saw the children were all happy to see little Maria, especially the girls since they all stood up and went to hug her. _

"_YOU ARE AS CUTE AS EVER!" one of the girls squealed loudly, hugging little Maria. Tsuna heard laughers and giggles and the scent looked very lively and happy. As if being affected by the scent, Tsuna laughed as well. _

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**

"Tsu-kun? Tsu-kun?"

Tsuna slowly opened his eyes as he heard the voice of his mother calling him. Feeling a bit groggy still, Tsuna stretched and yawned. He had never slept so better before and he felt very refreshing. Could it be because he had a happy dream?

Looking around, Tsuna realized he was still inside Maria and Bianchi's room. He had fallen asleep on the chair beside Maria's bed. Standing up, Tsuna went to check on Maria and he sighed in relief to see Maria looked much better compare to yesterday. Although very faint, Tsuna could see a smile on Maria's peaceful sleeping face.

"Maria?" Tsuna called, hoping Maria would be well enough to wake up. He smiled when he saw Maria slowly opened her eyes and a moment later, a pair of clear blue eye stared up at him. "You feel well?"

Tsuna moved away to give Maria some space to get up. He watched as the girl slowly pushed herself up on the bed and looking confuse. When she was up and laid her back against the headboard, Tsuna watched as Maria examined her own arms and legs.

"Do you remember what happen?" Tsuna asked gently and watched the girl slowly nodded her head after a while. Taking up a glass of water on the tableside, Tsuna handed the glass of water to Maria and watched she took it and took a few sips. All the time, she remained very quiet and Tsuna felt very awkward.

"Tsu-kun ~ your friends are here to see you ~" Tsuna's mother called from below stair and Tsuna wondered who would be visiting. Today was weekend and he guessed probably was Gokudera and Yamamoto. After telling Maria he would have Bianchi took up a tray of food for her, Tsuna turned towards the door and placed his hand on the handle, ready to open it however…

_CRASH!_

_BANG!_

"HIIIEEE!"

The door hit his face as someone opened the door from the other side and Tsuna held his face within his hands, feeling his tears filling up his eyes due to the pain. Squatting down, Tsuna held back his tears and lifted his face, trying hard to see who the person who opened the door so suddenly was.

A pair of red eyes staring down at him and the first thing that came into Tsuna's mind was Xanxus. However, the person who stood before him was no Xanxus but a girl clad in red Kimono and someone he did not know. After a few seconds of staring at each other, the girl was the first to look away and her gaze travelled to Maria who lay on the bed.

"MARIA~ !" the girl in kimono called out loudly and rushed towards the bed. When she reached the bed, she pulled a very surprised Maria into her arms and hugged her tight. "YOU ARE AS CUTE AS EVER!"

Tsuna's amber eyes widened when he heard the phrase. It was the exact same phrase one of the girls in his dream said to little Maria. Could it be the girl was someone from Maria's past? After pain began to fade away, Tsuna slowly got up and turned to look at the two girls. The look on Maria's face told him that she was surprised by the sudden appearance of the girl as well.

"…Kagura-nee?" Maria whispered and tried to push herself away from the embrace. When Kagura finally let her go, Maria took a full glance at Kagura, her distance cousin. After a few seconds of inspection, Tsuna caught a look of disappointed and sadness filled her face for a brief moment before Maria turned to look away.

"Why are you doing here?" Maria asked and lifted her legs over the bed and onto the floor. Her blue eyes looked around the room and were relieved to see her weapons lying against the wall nearby. Putting on her socks, Maria got down from the bed and went to retrieve her weapon.

Tsuna wondered what was happening. He had thought Maria would be happy to see someone she knew from her past but she was acting as if she was being annoyed by the presence of the kimono girl. Suddenly, he felt a dangerous aura behind him and he quickly darted to aside before turning around to see who was standing behind him.

"Squalo?" Tsuna muttered out as he came face to face with the scary silver haired battle commander of the famous assassin squad Varia. Tsuna paled as the thought of facing Xanxus soon. Although he had heard from Dino that the sky flame users Xanxus and Byakuran had reached Japan but Dino also told him it was unnecessary for them all to meet. Since Xanxus tried to kill him before, Tsuna did not want to meet him. Since Byakuran did kill him of the other world, he did not want to meet him either.

"Voi! What the hell! Didn't I warn you not to stray…oh, Sawada, you are here?" Squalo spoke up with a frown and his grey eyes stared down at Tsuna who stood beside the door.

"Varia…? Kagura…why are you with Varia?" Maria asked with confusion filled her blue eyes. Tsuna could also felt she had slowly tensed up and he wondered why. Did she and Varia did not get along as well?

Tsuna watched as the kimono girl whose name was Kagura shrugged her shoulders before sitting on the bed with a smile on her face. Tsuna tried not to flinch when her red eyes made contact with his; eyes that reminded him too much of Xanxus. To him, Xanxus represented the horror itself.

"Why is it so surprising? I am also one of Varia members, as you know." Kagura stated.

"HUH?" Both Tsuna and Squalo exclaimed and Tsuna turned around to look at the surprised Squalo. It would seem Squalo did not know that girl was one of the Varia members. When Tsuna turned to glance at Maria, he did not see the surprise look on her face as if she knew all along.

"Don't joke around, brat. I have never seen you before." Squalo said and frowned. He did not know what was going on at the moment. But when the girl said she was one of their elites, he doubted that. He had been with Varia since he was about her age and he had never once seen her before in the Varia HQ or camps. The reason he even accompanied her to Sawada's house was because his boss Xanxus told him to. He felt his blood boiled when the girl dared to ignore him and just continue talking with the blond haired girl in the room.

"I am not the only one here, Maria. The others are here also…" Kagura said. When Maria, her cousin disappeared suddenly in the middle of the night, she had been so frantic that she looked all over Italy and France with the help of her father's subordinates. However even looking over for months, she could not find her. Then one day, she was being summoned to meet a very important person. During the meeting, she found out the where about of her beloved cousin and had vowed to bring her back no matter what.

"…by the order of your beloved father." Kagura added.

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**

Kozato Enma, tenth boss of the Shimon Family exited the grocery store with each hand carrying a bag of groceries. One bag contained all the food that would last him for a week and another bag contained the foods for the cats he was going to feed later by the river bank. It was a shame he could not keep cats within his apartment since he loved cats. Actually, he also loved dogs but he did not know why, the dogs seemed to dislike him.

Walking along the street, Tsuna thought of the times when he was still living with Adele and the others. Although he enjoyed living by himself, he sure missed them since they had been together ever since he could remember.

When Enma reached the river bank, he walked down the hill and began making some noises to make the cats knew he was here. After a while, he smiled as he saw the cats and kittens began to make their appearance from under the bridge. Squatting down, Enma opened the bag and began to take out the cat foods he bought from the store.

"Huh…you have been feeding cats ever since now?" a voice spoke up from behind Enma, causing Enma to suddenly stand up in shock and his head crashed into whoever person's head behind him.

"Owwww…" Enma winced and clutched the back of his head. Still holding his head, Enma turned slightly around to see a red haired boy around his age knelt on the ground holding his face while moaning in pain.

"Why the hell did you do that!" the boy said while still holding his face. Enma flushed a little at his mistake. Bending down a little, Enma reached out his hand towards the boy, wanting to help him up.

"I'm sorry…I was spook. Are you alright?" Enma said sincerely and when the boy lifted his face to look at him, he was shocked to stare at a pair of deep red eyes so similar to his. Although the boy tried to hide it, Enma could still see the Shimon crest encrypted within the boy's eyes. Pulling his hand back, Enma took a few steps back and watched warily as the boy stood up, still rubbing his nose.

"Who are you?" Enma asked warily and took up a fighting position. He knew the boy was not someone from the Shimon Family and also there was impossible that they were related by blood; he was the only survivor of the Kozato line. The boy seemed to have notice Enma was being wary and so he raised his hands up in a surrender form. Enma relaxed a little but did not let down his guards.

"Chill, I'm not here to fight you. I was just stopping by to see the cats." The boy said. When Enma still seemed did not trust him, the boy pointed his finger at the bridge and reluctantly, Enma turned his head to look at the direction. At the direction where he pointed near under the bridge were a few kibbles filled bowls. "I was here feeding the cats when you came…"

Enma relaxed his fighting position when he saw apparently the boy had been feeding the cats too. Truthfully, he did not feel any malice intention or even suspicious feeling from the boy. He was just spook when the boy spoke up so suddenly from his back. He watched as the boy sighed in relief and sat down on the grass ground.

"Phew…you need to relax, man." The boy said and smiled at the cats that came snuggled up against him. Enma could see the boy adored the cats the way he touched them and played with them. Although he seemed like a good person, but it did not justify why he had the Shimon eyes.

"Your eyes…" Enma said and sat down on the grass opposite the boy. Enma wondered did his ancestor Cozart had another branch of family else where? Was this boy from that other branch so that was why he had the eyes only the blood kin of Cozart could have? Then where had they been living all those years and why now did he come to Namimori?

"Ah…my eyes? I inherit them from my father. He is…one of the survived Shimon back then…" the boy said and raised a hand to shade his eyes. Although he had a casual smile on his face, Enma could see he was somehow sad. Did he felt burden to have these eyes? A prove that he was the direct blood kin to the Shimon Primo.

"…Then your father and you are the candidates to become the Shimon boss. I…" Enma started to say but he trailed off when the boy raised his hand and stopped him.

"You are a great boss, Kozato Enma. Shimon will be fine and thriving as long as you are the boss." The boy said and smiled. His red eyes looked up at the sky and his smile dropped a bit. "Not that I don't like the Shimon…it's just…I have other things I want to do."

Enma frowned as he watched the boy became depressed after saying that. It would have seemed he was being burdened by the family duties while he had his own dreams to fulfill. He wondered what he wanted to do that he felt Shimon was in the way.

"So what it is you want to do? Did your father…oppose it?" Enma asked bluntly. The boy seemed surprised that he asked and turned his head to look at him. After a moment of silence, the boy laughed, holding his middle and rolled on the grass. Enma wondered what he said that the boy felt hilarious. When the boy stopped laughing, he got up on sitting position and smiled broadly like a little kid.

"Nope, my father supports me on chasing my dream. But family is also important to me. Haha…I can't believe I'm telling you this…this is weird." The boy said and laughed again. Couldn't help at the cheerfulness of the boy, Enma laughed along with him. The cats and kittens around them looked at the two laughing boys with confusion in their eyes.

After another long chat and was about time he went home, Enma stood up and picked up the bag on the grass. He watched the boy also looked at the watch on his wrist and had realized it was already late. He too, stood up and stuffed his hands inside his pants pockets. Before Enma and the boy parted, Enma turned towards the boy and asked.

"What is your name? Will we see each other again?" Enma wanted to know more about the other branch of the Shimon Family. Perhaps he could invite them to visit the St Island, the Shimon's private island. He should tell Adele and the others about this boy.

The boy seemed to ponder what to answer. He remained quiet for a few moments but lastly the boy shook his head and smiled. Facing Enma directly face to face, the boy replied.

"Setsuna. My name is Setsuna."

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**

Dino of Cavallone stared at the darken sky through the hotel glass in his room. He wondered how Tsuna was doing at the moment since he informed him that Xanxus and Byakuran had arrived in Japan. In fact, just a moment ago, he saw Xanxus and the rest of the Varia entered into the restaurant at ground level. He did not see Squalo along with them and Dino hoped Squalo would not be going after Tsuna and the kids. Just thinking about letting Tsuna faced Varia and Byakuran was enough to cause him to have gastric. He sighed. He hoped Tsuna would be fine on his own.

"Are you worried about Decimo?" a feminine voice spoke out from behind him.

Dino turned around to look at a young girl about Tsuna's age sat comfortably on the arm chair in the middle of the room, holding a pack of potato chips. The girl had long dark hair and a pair of purple eyes.

"Yea…Varia and Tsuna doesn't get along well...just…" Dino said and sighed again. Since he himself was being protected by Vongola and his own people, they had restricted him from going out at night. If the order did not come from Vongola Nono himself, he would have slipped away the moment he had the chance. In fact, the dark haired girl was one of the guards Nono sent to protect him. She told him her name was Sakuya.

"Don't worry, Vongola Decimo is very well protected. In fact, he is strong too, no?" Sakuya stated and crumbled the empty package before throwing it into the dustbin nearby. She was bored with nothing to do but she could not go out to the street because she had to protect one of the sky flame users, Dino of Cavallone.

She wondered how the rest of her friends were doing.

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**

"Ano…Byakuran-san, where are you going?" a girl with long purple hair and a pair of blue eyes asked while trailing after a white haired man, one of the sky flame users, Byakuran. She had heard stories about this man and her father had warned her before not to trust him too much. When the man before her stopped suddenly, she stopped as well and asked again. "Byakuran-san?"

"Do you know where Sho-chan stays~?" Byakuran asked while smiling. He popped one marshmallow into his mouth and chewed happily. Although he missed Sawada Tsunayoshi but he too missed his only friend, Irie Shoichi. He wondered how he would react when seeing him standing by his doorstep. He couldn't wait.

Byakuran watched the girl pondered for a moment before pulling out a piece of paper from her skirt's pocket. The girl, whose name was Shion, was the person the current Vongola boss sent to him for protection. Although so far he had yet to face any attacks from the mysterious group of people, he had heard from the girl that they were strong. Since losing to Tsunayoshi, the power he held was no longer as great as before and if he was to face the attackers, he wondered if he would lose.

"Irie Shoichi's house is at the other section of this road…he should be home at this moment." Shion said while looking at the list of schedule of various people. In order to protect the related people, Vongola Nono had passed each of them a list, allowing them to know where to find them and how to find them.

"Nice~ let's go there then~" Byakuran said and smiled. He then turned around and walked down the road, missing the caution look on the girl's face.

Shion put back the list into her pocket and her hand reached deeper to hold onto a small silver cross. For some time now, she had sensed there were people following them and watching them from afar. Based on their aura, these people could very well be the mysterious people Vongola Nono told them. Standing still for a few moments, she watched her surrounding closely. Then as soon as she detected something, that something disappeared. Letting go of the silver cross, Shion continued trailing after the white haired man.

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**

Standing on top of a light pole not far from Byakuran and Shion, a cloaked figure watched them with a frown on his face. He had missed his chance to steal the sky flame user because of a weird feeling he got from the girl near the sky flame user. He did not want to risk his own safety because he still had a long plan ahead of him that required him to stay alive and well.

"Till next time, then." The person whispered and disappeared into the shadow.

**XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX**


End file.
